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Wednesday
06 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
Gasoline Price Hike Next
Wednesday
Get ready for another
round of gasoline price
hikes that will take
effect next week.
Yesterday, the Autoridad
Reguladora de los
Servicios Públicos (Aresep)
- regulating authority
of public prices and
services - said the
latest approved price
hike of ¢17 colones for
a litre of regular and
¢16 for a litre of super
and diesel, will take
effect on August 13.
The new prices next
Wednesday will be ¢732
colone for a litre of
super, up from the
current ¢716; ¢721 for a
litre of regular, up
from the current ¢704;
and, ¢726 colones for a
litre of diesel, up from
the current ¢710.
The price of diesel has
affected the economy
mostly as the majority
of the country's fleet
of commercial vehicles
and public
transportation all use
diesel. The price of a
litre of diesel fuel on
August 9, 2007, was
¢427* colones.
Diesel fuel prices rose
steadily during the past
year, reaching a high of
¢622 colones a litre on
June 20, 2008 and for
the first time in the
country's history,
surpassing the price of
gasoline on July 15,
2008.
The price of Jet fuel,
Kerosene, AvGas and LPG
is also going up.
Making matters worse,
the Aresep is proposing
a price hike that would
see the price of a litre
of dieselgo up another
¢34 colones and ¢6
colones for super and
regular gasoline. The
hike to allow the state
refinery, Recope, make
up a shortfall due to
rising prices for crude
oil on international
markets and the lag time
to effect a change of
price at the retail
level.
This Friday, Recope is
expected to make its
monthly proposal for a
price hike, that would
take effect in
September, which may be
in line with the Aresep
proposal.
* Source:
Recope |
